So I’ve completely fallen of the blog wagon (blogon?) so far in 2014. I blame Instagram (@spindriftsurfboards), but I’m committed to getting back to my virtual roots. So here we go…

Stringers add strength and stiffness to a board. When the stringer–the stiffest part of the board–is down the middle, some of the energy loaded into a turn is lost to torsion (twist). In the case of boards with parabolic stringers, like these two Standard Issues, the rails become the stiffest parts of the board, thereby minimizing torsional forces and enhancing the nose to tail flex that makes a board feel lively.

The absence of a center reference point makes them a pain in the ass to shape, but the performance improvement is real for high level surfing, and I’ve wondered for years why we don’t see more of them in the water.